Where to buy metal standoffs for reasonable $?

[Deke609]

These things are crazy expensive. I keep buying metric multi-packs in M2, M3, M4 - but only find the "longish" M3 and M4s useful - so end up with a whole ton leftover that I'll probably never use.

And I've never even seen a multi-pack of imperial (U.S./UK).

Anyone know of a good source for these things?  Looking for aluminum or brass. Metric and imperial. 2.5 cm/1" or longer.

Willing to buy in 100s to get a better price (but not 1000s).

cheers and thanks, Derek

[Paul Birkeland]

McMaster Carr.

[Deke609]

Many thanks PB. I will check them out. I just assumed MC was expensive and never looked.

[Paul Birkeland]

I mean, if you want really inexpensive, you can go to Mouser and buy whatever Keystone makes.  Keystone doesn't have much in the way of variety though.

[Deke609]

Yeah ... and there I was thinking Keystone from Mouser was expensive. Maybe I'll have to try buying direct from China for metric - doubt they make imperial/standard. I don't need NAS quality stuff - nothing is mission critical. Just lifting trafos, chokes etc. off the chassis to get some wire/parts clearance. If the threads/nuts are a bit loose I can add a drop or two of blue loctite.

cheers and thanks, Derek

[Deluk]

Keystone appear to be metric only. Not sure why you can't use metric for this usage. better choice here maybe?
https://www.mouser.co.uk/RAF-Electronic-Hardware/Electromechanical/Hardware/Standoffs-Spacers/_/N-aictf?P=1yzvkii

[caffeinator]

I've run into this also - the difficulty of finding standoffs in appropriate lengths, size and thread, and have done a lot of searching. One thing I've learned is that what I would call standoffs (lengths of tube or extruded hexagonal shaped material with internal thread) often go by other names, such as 'threaded spacers,' or 'sleeve nuts.'

I've found them at hardware stores (Ace, Lowe's, McLendon - here in Washington State, USA) in the fastener department, though the selection tends to be narrow and the prices perhaps a little high.

Most recently, I was looking for the right size of these to space a choke off of a Crack chassis plate, and hit paydirt on Amazon:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PKFL8II/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Note that they don't call it a standoff in the item title, but it appears in the description. Iirc, Amazon had this size, but not necessarily the full range of lengths and thread sizes.

Hope this helps!

[Deke609]

Many thanks Deluk and caffeinator.  I placed an order from China for a whole bunch of metric standoffs for about 1/4 the price I'd pay here (and quite probably for the same product).

But no luck with standard/imperial ones that are helpful when doing retrofits to BH products without the need to replace stock fasteners. I'll try caffeinator's alternative search terms.

cheers, Derek

[Paul Birkeland]

Keystone appear to be metric only. Not sure why you can't use metric for this usage. better choice here maybe?
https://www.mouser.co.uk/RAF-Electronic-Hardware/Electromechanical/Hardware/Standoffs-Spacers/_/N-aictf?P=1yzvkii

Keystone does have imperial standoffs (Mouser in the US shows about 700), but they may not be available in the UK.

[Deke609]

Thanks PB. I'm in Toronto, so all good. The UK references in my original post were just meant to mark the fact the both the U.S. and UK use measurements standards based on the old English "imperial" measurement standards.

cheers, Derek

[2wo]

I tend to use the ones with a male thread on one end that way with a few sizes I can get whatever length I need...John

[hitmanray]

May not have all the sizes you are looking for but I recently bought a bunch of standoffs that were clearance items from Grainger. The images on Grainger website all show them to have very long offsets for the threaded end, but the ones I received did not have that feature and were exactly what you would expect in terms of body and thread length as described in the summary table.

I figured for about $0.05 a piece it was worth the risk to try and see what I got. I did buy a bunch of different lengths of the 1/4 HEX 8-32 thread, but can't say whether the others will be as described above or per the Grainger pictures.

Will try and post pictures of what I received later if it helps.

https://www.grainger.com/category/fasteners/spacers-and-standoffs/standoffs/male-female-hex-standoffs?filters=shopItemsBy&shopItemsBy=Clearance+Items

[Deke609]

Wow - those Grainger clearance prices are insanely good. Unfortunately, Grainger U.S. won't ship to Canada, and Grainger Canada doesn't have any standoffs on clearance (at least as far as I can see).

If anyone is going to order some of these from Grainger and is willing to buy some extra for me and mail them, I will happily pay them $20 (over and above purchase price and shipping costs) as a token of my appreciation and to cover the nuisance of having to drop them in the mail.  Please PM me if interested.

cheers, Derek

[caffeinator]

Hi, Deke609,

Grainger does do crazy clearance prices from time to time - I've caught one myself and it was so extreme I wasn't sure it was for real until I picked it up. I was buying some rivet-on studs and the price was so low I thought I was getting the eight I needed, but it was actually eight bags of 50 each.

Anyway, found yet another search term - 'coupling nut' - and yet another source: boltdepot.com. I've ordered from them, in the distant past, and that one experience with them was positive. I didn't see aluminum coupling nuts in their inventory, but they do have plenty of steel options, and the price each for bags of 100 isn't awful. I'd recommend the zinc plated finish, and suggest avoiding hot-dipped galvanized.

Hope this helps!

https://www.boltdepot.com/Coupling_nuts.aspx

[pechelman]

Recently went through this same issue on a different project. Mouser was around 1-2 dollars per, McMaster about the same. Ended up going to Amazon and bought a bag of 50 for 6$ shipped. Think the were m3x8 but the same seller had them all the way to to 20-25mm for only a couple bucks more.